One Health implementation: WOAH at World One Health Congress 

At the 9th World One Health Congress in Lisbon, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) is calling for a new phase of One Health implementation, prevention and lasting change in countries and communities. 

A virus moving between wild birds and poultry does not stop to ask which authority is responsible. Antimicrobial resistance does not recognise the boundary between a hospital and a veterinary clinic. Environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change cannot be contained within a single ministry or profession. 

Yet the systems designed to address these threats often remain divided. Data sit on separate platforms, expertise in different institutions and funding in sector-specific budgets. As experts, policymakers and practitioners gather in Lisbon from 4 to 7 September 2026, the question is no longer whether human, animal and environmental health are interconnected. It is whether our ways of working are evolving quickly enough to reflect that reality. 

Opening the event, WOAH Director General Dr Emmanuelle Soubeyran called for 
One Health to move beyond declarations and become a shared practice. At a time when food insecurity, climate change, biodiversity loss and geopolitical instability are converging, One Health is no longer simply an option, but a necessity. 

However, crossing boundaries does not mean erasing sectoral responsibilities or diluting expertise. Effective collaboration depends on strong Veterinary Services, public health systems, environmental and wildlife institutions, food systems and research capacities, each contributing its expertise to shared goals. 

“One Health will not be delivered through declarations alone. It will be delivered in countries, laboratories, hospitals, Veterinary Services, farms and food systems, wildlife and ecosystem management, and, most importantly, in communities,” Dr Soubeyran said. 

From global commitments to national action 

This shift from commitment to implementation is at the centre of WOAH’s participation. The One Health Joint Plan of Action, launched in 2022 by the Quadripartite organisations (FAO, UNEP, WHO and WOAH) provides a common framework for collaboration across human, animal, plant and ecosystem health. But a global framework only becomes meaningful when it changes how institutions work together at national and local levels. 

How does a country move from endorsing One Health to deciding who is responsible for what? How can ministries share information and accountability? And how can a national plan survive changes in leadership or the end of external funding? 

These questions will guide “Bridging Policy-to-Practice: Implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action at National Level ”, one of WOAH’s priority sessions. Experiences from Uzbekistan, Singapore and Malawi will trace different stages of One Health implementation- from assessing capacities and gaps, bringing the right stakeholders together, to establishing coordination mechanisms and translating priorities into costed national action plans. Evidence from the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) will highlight the conditions that make implementation last, including political leadership, clear mandates, integrated data, sustainable financing and workforce capacity. 

The real test of One Health is not whether countries have created a strategy, but whether that strategy changes decisions, budgets and action on the ground. Implementation has to be nationally owned, adequately financed and built into institutions. Otherwise, collaboration risks remaining dependent on individual projects or the urgency of the next crisis.

Dr Chadia Wannous, Head of the One Health and Global Frameworks Department at WOAH.

A related discussion organised by OHHLEP on translating enablers, dismantling barriers and aligning global policy will explore how to move away from arrangements that appear during emergencies and towards systems capable of working together before a crisis begins. 

Prevention: connecting science, policy and communities 

Prevention will be another central theme of WOAH’s contribution. A session co-organised with PREZODE will explore how scientific evidence, policy priorities, local knowledge and lived experience can inform one another and lead to earlier, better decisions. Experiences from Senegal, Viet Nam and global governance will help participants examine recurring obstacles, including short-term financing, weak trust, limited community participation and an “emergency bias” that allows cooperation to fade once the immediate danger has passed. The aim is to create durable interfaces through which knowledge can move in both directions and shape action. 

Building the systems behind collaboration 

Plans and structures are only as effective as the people expected to implement them. One Health requires strong technical expertise within each discipline, but also professionals who can understand complex systems, communicate across institutions and build trust with colleagues from other sectors. 

The FAO/WHO/WOAH Joint One Health Learning Taskforce is working to develop competency-based learning pathways grounded in country and workforce needs. Its session at the Congress will show how existing learning platforms and technical resources can be connected, reducing duplication while combining profession-specific knowledge with skills such as systems thinking, collaboration, communication and leadership. Ministries, universities and training institutions will consider how they can help define, pilot and evaluate future programmes.

Effective One Health systems must also recognise that risks are not experienced equally. Social roles influence who interacts with animals, who handles wildlife products, who has access to services and who participates in decisions. A session on gender-transformative approaches will examine how diversity, equity and inclusion can be embedded in governance, financing, data and programmes. 

WOAH joint work with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on wildmeat value chains offers a concrete example. Hunting is often the most visible activity and may dominate risk assessments. Looking at the entire value chain reveals other roles, including women’s involvement in transporting and selling wildmeat, and forms of exposure that might otherwise remain invisible. Accounting for these realities strengthens both the evidence behind prevention and the policies built from it. 

From interconnected thinking to connected systems 

WOAH experts will also contribute to discussions on wildlife health and surveillance, sustainable financing, and the continuing H5N1 panzootic. Though these topics may appear distinct, they lead to the same conclusion: complex threats cannot be addressed through a single intervention or sector. 

Prevention depends on connecting Veterinary Services, public health authorities, wildlife and environmental institutions, scientists, industry and communities around shared risks. It requires surveillance information to become early warning and action, global frameworks to be adapted to national realities, and political and financial commitment to continue after international attention has moved elsewhere. 

One Health will ultimately be judged not by the number of strategies produced or meetings held, but by whether countries and communities are better able to prevent threats, protect animals and people, safeguard ecosystems and act together when risks emerge. 

The challenge now is to turn interconnected thinking into connected systems—and a shared concept into lasting practice.